September 15, 2018
I do not believe the proposed rules have been fully studied - and I am concerned that the impact of these rules are uncertain.
This is especially true because there is very little quantified impact of the proposed rules and the fact that the SEC's Whistleblower Office and its rules of operation were previously setup to handle 30,000 Whistleblower Tips per year. Something that SEC's Whistleblower Office is unable to handle.
I hope that the SEC's Whistleblower Office will not make the same mistakes as it did previously. Furthermore, I hope that the SEC's Whistleblower Office can shed light on the quantifiable impact of these proposed rules.
One key fact that is critical to commenting on these rules in the average time it takes to adjudicate a 'non-frivilous' Whistleblower Claim and the number of 'non-frivilous' Whistleblower Claims currently pending adjudication before the Commission.
Myself and other Whistleblowers have inquires to the SEC and Whistleblower Office to ask two basic questions:
1.) The position in the Whistleblower Claims queue of certain pending Whistleblower Claims and
2.) The average time per adjudication of a Whistleblower Claim.
Although these numbers are very basic and indeed critical to the proper functioning and management of the Whistleblower Program - the SEC has been unable to respond to these basic requests for information. This needs to change.
After what myself and other Whistleblowers have gone through and having our concerns repeatedly mismanaged or ignored by the SEC, I actually believe that I would discourage other Whistleblowers from reporting fraud to the SEC if any would-be-whistleblower would ask me for advice.